Cannot open Gedit display on Ubuntu Server 12.04

Question

I just installed Ubuntu Server 12.04 32 bit. I need to perform the following command in a terminal window:

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

First the gedit command did not work; therefore, I did:

sudo apt-get install gedit

Then I typed sudo gedit /etc/samba.smb.conf and now I am getting: Cannot open display

Can anyone help?

Answer 1

I used nano instead of gedit.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Woo hoo, my Ubuntu Server is now working!! :)

Answer 2

If you are accessing your server from a workstation using ssh, then you can't use graphical applications unless you set your DISPLAY variable to point to your workstation's X-Server. For system administrators, I would recommend learning your way around the vim editor. The learning curve is a bit steep in the beginning, but it's well worth it.

Answer 3

You can use nano or vim for editing configuration files. Both are preinstalled on ubuntu server 12.04.